Well, it’s that time again. If you haven’t started your school year already, then chances are you’ll be starting pretty soon. Have you got all your curriculum yet? Possibly so, but I’m sure there are those out there who want to homeschool and are struggling. You’ve either found a way to make do, or it’s possible you’ve delayed getting your books in hopes of being able to afford what you need later.

The Book Samaritan is a non-profit organization that runs out of Pawhuska, Oklahoma. It helps provide homeschooling materials to those financially unable to get what they need to homeschool their children.

If you’re in need of materials, you can send a letter to this organization, along with your children’s grade levels, and they’ll help you out. If you have specific curriculum requests, you can include those as well. They can’t always fulfill the specific curriculum requests, but they’ll do what they can to get you what your children need for the school year.

You’re probably asking, “But what’s the catch?” It’s simple really. When you’re finished with the materials, they don’t want you selling them. You are to either pass them on to other homeschoolers who can use them, or send them back to The Book Samaritan, so they can be used by other homeschooling families in need.

That’s it! If finances are what stand between you and your ability to homeschool, then this is a simple solution.

Help Others Receive Homeschooling Materials

Maybe you’re a homeschooling family that doesn’t need help with materials. Maybe you have old curriculum and learning supplies laying around. Well, guess what? You can HELP The Book Samaritan.

The Book Samaritan exists because of donations. Selling your old material might be great for a few extra bucks, but you just might want to consider sending these items to this organization and help give someone the opportunity to homeschool. Here’s what they accept:

books

workbooks

kits

CD-Roms and DVDs

flashcards

school supplies

And of course, monetary donations are accepted as well. These funds are used to provide families with materials the organization doesn’t already have on hand.

Check it out. The Book Samaritan is a great organization that has already helped many homeschooling families, and will hopefully help many more in the future.

I had to stop by Target the other day, and was hoping amongst hope that they had their supplies out. They did!! WOO! It was great. We started school this past Monday (that’s a whole different post entirely) and I was lacking a couple things. When I was there I was able to pick up most of what I was missing, so we’re good to go!

This was the best school supply shopping trip I think I’ve had. My son absolutely hates dealing with it, so I did the shopping while he was at youth group (I always enjoyed school shopping and picking things out as a kid, but I guess he wants no part of it.) It was also early evening on a weeknight, and too early for most other people to want to be buying school supplies so for the most part I had the area to myself, rather than having to hear grouchy parents and loud kids running around the Back-to-School area.

I bought extra binders last year and was able to recycle a couple from a few years back as well, so I don’t need to worry about those, which is what we spent a lot of time on last year. (Do you know how hard it is to find a 1 1/2″ binder that holds folders, or a 2″ O-ring binder??) I knew what I was lacking and went in with a mental list of what I wanted, knowing what the prices were last year, so I had a plan.

Well luck has it that I had to go to Target again today. I had to pick up a couple of things, and my son was anxious to spend some money he had, so away we went. As promised, I spent some time getting a better idea of what’s available for school supplies they had in that dollar section. (Okay, okay, I was looking to see what they had that might be useful for me as well!)

Here’s a general list of what I saw there that could be used for homeschooling:– Dr. Seuss themed items – these included inspirational posters, flashcards, and pencils– general flashcards– workbooks – most general, but I did catch some Disney’s The Little Mermaid workbooks for addition and some Liza Frank-like covered workbooks– stickers (the good job! and excellent! and shiny-stars types, given for a job well done)– bulletin board decor– Junior Classics Books – stories such as Pinocchio and Little Women in easier-to-read formats for younger children– mini dry-erase boards (about notebook paper sized. They had them blank in different colors, one lined like notebook paper, and then the “handwriting practice” lines dry-erase boards with the two bold lines with a dotted line between them– magnetic letters– play money– “hand” pointers– dry erase pockets – good for putting worksheets inside and using a dry-erase marker to write OVER the worksheet without actually marking up the sheet– teacher lesson books and teacher grade books

The most interesting find that I thought looked fun was something called “blank books“:

These looked pretty cool and I can probably use them for various things (read: assign various projects). Please note, these are $3, not just $1. This pack has eight 8″x 8″ square soft-covered books, but they also had a 3-pack that was slightly smaller than 8″x 11″ (I believe) and a 3-pack that was hard-covered that was considerably smaller (6″ x 4″ maybe?) . These could be used for stories, topic books and vocabulary, nature journals, and who knows what else. I have to admit it was hard to not buy all three sizes. For me and what I would use them for, though, this size seemed the most versatile.

Be sure to check out Target. You never know what you’ll find for homeschooling!

Kohl’s

I also stopped by Kohl’s today to return a dress, and on my way to the service desk (which is inconveniently located at the very back of the store) I caught a glimpse of various Frozen school supplies on a display in the middle of the aisle with a 20% off School Supplies sign prominently displayed. If you have a little girl that’s into Frozen you just might want to take a quick trip to Kohl’s and see if there are any good deals on the items they had.

Have you found any deals for school supplies yet? Let us know about them!!

Well, believe it or not, June’s not even over yet, and it’s already begun. Target has started putting out inexpensive “school supply” items in their dollar section. I have to admit I was in a bit of a hurry each time I walked through (on my way into the store to get other items), but noticed things are starting to appear in this section. A lot of the items can work well for various homeschooling purposes. I’ll try to include a more comprehensive list later, but if you have children in lower grades, or just need knicknacks here and there, then you might want to start checking out what they have.

Things I’ve seen so far include workbooks and organizational items (things like little baskets, bins, holders, and plastic accordion folders).

Just thought I’d give a heads up to those of you who are interested. Let the supply shopping fun begin!

Well, here we are at the end of our first week for this new school year already. We didn’t finish our testing at the end of the this past year, so we started this year a week early and here we are! This week was a testing-only week, which was kind of nice because it somewhat eased our transition back to doing schoolwork after our few weeks off. No matter the length of the break, coming back always can be difficult.

My son will be in SIXTH grade this year – Middle School! It’s so hard to believe! And this will be our fifth year of homeschooling!

If you’re anything like me you love the newness of everything for a new year. New curriculum. New supplies. New activities. And, for us, even some new decorations and classroom posters for our school area!

Supplies are hands-down my favorite thing to shop for. I love doing curriculum shopping as well, but a lot of that is done online, so it doesn’t have the same giddiness of pushing a cart through the Back-To-School (BTS) area of a brick-and-mortar store. Notebooks! Pencils! Erasers! Things you didn’t know you even needed! It’s great.

When my son was in the younger elementary grades one of my favorite areas was the $1 section of Target where they’d have various things to add to our teaching. We went today and they’re already stocking it up with school things and clearing their summer area for their BTS section. I’ve got this thing down pat I think.

Our typical school start is the second week of July. This is when Target’s BTS section is a work-in-progress. Some supplies are out. Bins are there but they are empty. Employees sit on the floor with shippers and supplies trying to figure out what goes where. An empty stocking cart or two are hanging around. By the second week most of the supplies are out and I can actually shop! Yay! This is also a great time to shop because NOBODY else is usually there buying stuff yet. Public school here doesn’t start for a least another month, and it will be a week or two before the BTS craziness begins and the aisles are hopping.

I’m so sorry for the time it has taken me to put these up, but fifth grade seems to be the “transitional” year in terms of more schoolwork and activities that are keeping us extremely busy this year. Better late than never though, so here they are folks:

Well, a new school year is upon us, and I barely feel like I’ve fully tied up ends to everything from last year. Sure, grades and reports have been done for almost a couple of months (was the beginning of June really that far off already?!), but here we are again, already into a new school year. We had a busy summer full of fun, activities, and craziness, but are getting back into the swing of things for our new year.

This year, I hope to have posts more often, but we’ll see how that goes. I’m hoping to get in some curriculum reviews, keep up-to-date with various worksheets, and add a few fun idea posts as well.

Oh yeah, and I haven’t forgotten you Apologia Zoology 3 people and am still working on a final worksheet set for that missing chapter. I know they were promised sooner but it just didn’t work out that way. Also, because of our need for them recently, I have already gotten into making some worksheets and tests for Apologia’s Anatomy and Physiology book (which we’re loving by the way!) I’m actually hoping to get the first chapter’s (lesson’s – I still call them chapters!) worksheet set post up tomorrow if too many extras don’t sneak into my day today. There has just been so much to do around here that things don’t always get done as planned, but I’ll do my best.

Anyway, hope you guys are having a great summer and get into the swing of things for school when the time comes. Keep a watch out for my upcoming new posts!